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      February 22, 2024EmergenceChris Kaiser

      Image: “Desperado” by G.J. Gillespie. “Emergence” was written by Chris Kaiser for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, January 2024, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.
      I remember you nude, descending
      a staircase, the Times glued
      to your hip. What was that four-letter
      word beginning with “o”? Oh, I
       
      remember your pentimento skin,
      a collage of silent wounds that spoke
      to my tongue in the pink moments
      of dawn, your stitched body,
       
      a patchwork quilt of stop-gap
      bloodletting. But too often you
      covered truth with hope: “Can I
      escape the mechanized chime
       
      of church bells that take their toll
      on each dying day?” Oh, I wish I
      had tasted the gasoline in your veins,
      believed in the violence of hope,
       
      drowned in the rich delta of tears.
      Maybe I’d’ve risen like the salmon-pink
      moon over the radius of your pain
      and burrowed like a winter squirrel
       
      into the geometry
      of your sorrow and love.

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the artist, G.J. Gillespie

      “While some poems evoked violence or disease, which wasn’t my initial intention, ‘Emergence’ resonated with the deeper layers of existential perplexity in my artwork. The poem’s rich and sensual imagery, like ‘pentimento skin’ and ‘the rich delta of tears,’ captures the emotional complexity I aimed to portray. The allusion to ‘Nude Descending a Staircase’ adds a layer of historical context and artistic dialogue. While other poems responded to the collaged nature of the artwork, none incorporated unique elements like the ‘geometry’ of sorrow and love, which beautifully reflects the fragmented yet interconnectedness of the figure. More importantly, the poem’s undercurrent of longing and the speaker’s desire to delve deeper into the subject’s pain mirror the sense of mystery and invitation I hoped to create in my viewers. It’s a poem that lingers in the mind and invites repeated exploration, much like my artwork.”

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